Implications of the new WHO guidelines on HIV and infant feeding for child survival in South Africa

The World Health Organization released revised principles and recommendations for HIV and infant feeding in November 2009. The recommendations are based on programmatic evidence and research studies that have accumulated over the past few years within African countries. This document urges national or subnational health authorities to decide whether health services should mainly counsel and support HIV-infected mothers to breastfeed and receive antiretroviral interventions, or to avoid all breastfeeding, based on estimations of which strategy is likely to give infants in those communities the greatest chance of HIV-free survival. South Africa has recently revised its clinical guidelines for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, adopting many of the recommendations in the November 2009 World Health Organization's rapid advice on use of antiretroviral drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing HIV infection in infants. However, one aspect of the new South African guidelines gives cause for concern: the continued provision of free formula milk to HIV-infected women through public health facilities. This paper presents the latest evidence regarding mortality and morbidity associated with feeding practices in the context of HIV and suggests a modification of current policy to prioritize child survival for all South African children.     

Residence in urban and rural areas over the life course and depression among Ghanaian and South African older adults

This study assessed associations between depression and urban/rural residence from a life-course perspective within African settings. Data on Ghanaian and South African adults aged 50 years and older were taken from wave 1 of the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Neither urbanicity of childhood nor adulthood residence was associated with later-life depression in either country. Significant differences were also not observed for residence changes over the life course, but there were trends in the data suggestive of higher depression prevalence in Ghanaian recent rural-urban migrants and lower prevalence among South African recent urban-rural migrants.     

WHO《新型冠状病毒感染暴发时社区、家庭和医疗卫生机构照护中医用口罩的使用指南》解读

 

有效预防和控制新型冠状病毒的暴发流行是政府、公众及每位卫生专业人员面临的严峻挑战。在新型冠状病毒暴发时期,世界卫生组织（WHO）发布《新型冠状病毒暴发时社区、家庭和医疗卫生机构照护中医用口罩的使用指南》,对从事公共卫生、感染的预防和控制的卫生专业人员、卫生管理人员、卫生保健和社区卫生工作人员医用口罩的使用提出了指导性的建议。本文对该指南进行解读,了解在社区、家庭和医疗卫生机构照护中医用口罩 佩戴和管理的建议,旨在为口罩的正确佩戴,合理使用,避免资源浪费提供科学依据。

     

To achieve "health for all" we must shift the world's paradigm to "primary care access for all".

Since the early 1950s, the World Health Organization has proposed programs to promote primary health care around the world. From the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration to the current promulgation of the Millennium Development Goals, the World Health Organization has tried to improve health in developing countries through a focus on disease-oriented (vertical) programs. The World Health Organization and other organizations have not focused on the horizontal role of primary care. The expectations created by these programs have not been met. Evidence demonstrates that the advent of health care through a base of primary care improves health better than through the traditional vertical disease-oriented health programs used around the globe. The global "family" of family medicine must advocate for a shift from the current solutions to one in which the family doctor is part of a well-trained health care team that can function in networks that incorporate the vertical programs into a broad horizontal approach for better access to primary care. Perhaps in this way "health for all" can be achieved.     

母乳喂养成功实施因素及其对策的研究进展

母乳喂养是世界卫生组织和联合国儿童基金会推崇的最理想的喂养方式,旨在为婴幼儿的生长发育和健康成长提供良好的物质保障.国际上已将保护、促进和支持母乳喂养作为妇幼卫生工作的一个重要内容.该文通过了解母乳喂养的现状,分析母乳喂养下降的因素,探讨方便、有效、可行、易于接受的干预措施以促进母乳喂养的实施,提高母乳喂养的成功率.     

Globalization and international trade in the twenty-first century: opportunities for and threats to the health sector in the south.

Globalization and international trade are important forces at the turn of the century. This article explores how freer international trade will affect developing countries that are net importers of health care goods and services. Four commodities are used as special cases for discussion: pharmaceuticals, health care technologies, pesticides, and tobacco and its related products. The authors discuss the role of international specialized agencies, such as the World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and World Bank, that are concerned with international trade and its health and health care consequences, and argue that closer collaboration is required among these agencies if the negative effects of trade liberalization on developing countries are to be mitigated. The authors pose a number of research questions that could help in developing proactive policies for the South on the trade of goods and services with harmful effects on health as well as those with potential health and economic benefits.     

Primary level psychological services in South Africa: can a new psychological professional fill the gap?

Care for common mental health problems in medium-resourced countries has been conceptualized by the World Health Organization as needing to be provided by primary health care personnel, in particular primary health care nurses. This study, which comprised a file audit of a psychological referral service at primary level in South Africa, suggests that in contexts where specialized psychological services are lacking, the demand for mental health services includes that of psychometric assessment services for mental retardation and/or scholastic problems. It is argued that in these contexts, third generation health systems reforms should be applied to the provision of care for more common mental health problems as well as mental retardation and/or scholastic problems in medium-resourced countries. This would require the insertion of a 'package' comprised of both psychological assessment and intervention services. It is suggested that in South Africa, such a 'package' could be provided by the new professional category of 'counsellor', which the Professional Board of Psychology of the South African Health Professions Council has recently accredited.     

Communicating human biomonitoring results to ensure policy coherence with public health recommendations: analysing breastmilk whilst protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding

This article addresses the problem of how to ensure consistency in messages communicating public health recommendations on environmental health and on child health. The World Health Organization states that the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding rank among the most effective interventions to improve child survival. International public health policy recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by continued breastfeeding with the addition of safe and adequate complementary foods for two years and beyond. Biomonitoring of breastmilk is used as an indicator of environmental pollution ending up in mankind. This article will therefore present the biomonitoring results of concentrations of residues in breastmilk in a wider context. These results are the mirror that reflects the chemical substances accumulated in the bodies of both men and women in the course of a lifetime. The accumulated substances in our bodies may have an effect on male or female reproductive cells; they are present in the womb, directly affecting the environment of the fragile developing foetus; they are also present in breastmilk. Evidence of man-made chemical residues in breastmilk can provide a shock tactic to push for stronger laws to protect the environment. However, messages about chemicals detected in breastmilk can become dramatized by the media and cause a backlash against breastfeeding, thus contradicting the public health messages issued by the World Health Organization. Analyses of breastmilk show the presence of important nutritional components and live protective factors active in building up the immune system, in gastro intestinal maturation, in immune defence and in providing antiviral, antiparasitic and antibacterial activity. Through cohort studies researchers in environmental health have concluded that long-term breastfeeding counterbalances the effect of prenatal exposure to chemicals causing delay in mental and psychomotor development. Therefore caution should be exercised when presenting the results of biomonitoring of breastmilk. The results should be a motivation to enact strong legislation on chemicals and review the use of chemical substances present in breastmilk, but the results should not be used to undermine the confidence in breastmilk as the optimal food for infants and young children.     

The paradoxes of humanized childbirth care in a public maternity ward in Brazil

The maternity ward of the University Hospital in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, attempts to follow World Health Organization guidelines for humanized childbirth care, including the encouragement of non-surgical delivery, breastfeeding, rooming-in, extended family visitation, and reduction of excessive technological intervention in the delivery process. The study focuses specifically on the choice of delivery procedure and on family presence during labor/childbirth, as well as women's experience with labor and breastfeeding.     

Maternal mortality in resource-poor settings: policy barriers to care

Maternal mortality remains one of the most daunting public health problems in resource-poor settings, and reductions in maternal mortality have been identified as a prominent component of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The World Health Organization estimates that 515000 women die each year from pregnancy-related causes, and almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries.Evidence has shown that access to and utilization of high-quality emergency obstetric care (EmOC) is central to efforts aimed at reducing maternal mortality. We analyzed health care policies that restrict access to life-saving EmOC in most resource-poor settings, focusing on examples from rural India, a country of more than 1 billion people that contributes approximately 20% to 24% of the world's maternal deaths.     

国际旅行卫生保健中心发展的几点思考

〔目的〕探讨入世后新形势、新任务下我国国际旅行卫生保健中心的工作对策。〔方法〕笔者结合工作实践,从体制创新和制度创新的角度对国际旅行卫生保健中心在改革发展过程中如何加强自身体系建设进行探讨。〔结果〕各级国际旅行卫生保健中心应明确各自职责,切实落实“垂直体制,双重管理”模式,大力推行保健中心品牌建设,完善保健中心分级管理办法并加强与出入境管理部门的横向联系,加快保健中心信息化建设步伐。〔结论〕我国国际旅行卫生保健中心作为检验检疫工作技术保障机构及具有医疗行业特色的医疗保健机构应以“服务经济,促进发展”为中心,大力推进事业单位机构改革进程,努力开拓国际旅行卫生保健事业的新局面。     

Case management for the treatment of patients with major depression in general practices – rationale,design and conduct of a cluster randomized controlled trial – PRoMPT (Primary care Monitoring for depressive Patient's Trial) [ISRCTN66386086] – Study protocol

Background  

Depression is a disorder with high prevalence in primary health care and a significant burden of illness. The delivery of health care for depression, as well as other chronic illnesses, has been criticized for several reasons and new strategies to address the needs of these illnesses have been advocated. Case management is a patient-centered approach which has shown efficacy in the treatment of depression in highly organized Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) settings and which might also be effective in other, less structured settings.     

Use of stable-isotope techniques to validate infant feeding practices reported by Bangladeshi women receiving breastfeeding counseling

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding until age 6 mo. Studies relying on mothers' self-reported behaviors have shown that lactation counseling increases both the rate and duration of exclusive breastfeeding. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to validate reported infant feeding practices in rural Bangladesh; intakes of breast milk and nonbreast-milk water were measured by the dose-given-to-the mother deuterium dilution technique. DESIGN: Subjects were drawn from the large-scale Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions, Matlab, study of combined interventions to improve maternal and infant health, in which women were randomly assigned to receive either exclusive breastfeeding counseling or standard health care messages. Data on infant feeding practices were collected by questionnaire at monthly visits. Intakes of breast milk and nonbreast-milk water were measured in a subsample of 98 mother-infant pairs (mean infant age: 14.3 wk) and compared with questionnaire data reporting feeding practices. RESULTS: Seventy-five of the 98 subjects reported exclusive breastfeeding. Mean (+/-SD) breast milk intake was 884 +/- 163 mL/d in that group and 791 +/- 180 mL/d in the group reported as nonexclusively breastfed (P = 0.0267). Intakes of nonbreast-milk water were 40 +/- 80.6 and 166 +/- 214 mL/d (P < 0.0001), respectively. Objective cross-validation using deuterium dilution data showed good accuracy in reporting of feeding practices, although apparent misreporting was widely present in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The dose-given-to-the-mother deuterium dilution technique can be applied to validate reported feeding behaviors. Whereas this technique shows that the reports of feeding practices were accurate at the group level, it is not adequate to distinguish between feeding practices in individual infants.     

Building integrated health systems in central and eastern Europe: an analysis of WHO and World Bank views and their relevance to health systems in transition

BACKGROUND: Two questions are addressed. i) What are the views on health and health systems as expressed in the World Development Report 2000/2001 of the WB and the World Health Report 2000 and Health 21 of the World Health Organization, and how compatible are those views? ii) To what extent will compliance of CEEC and NIS with the WHO and WB recommendations result in health systems that produce maximum health for all by adequately addressing the needs of their populations? METHOD: The reports prepared by the World Bank and the World Health Organization were assessed against the theoretical framework of a needs-based public health approach. RESULTS: It is observed that the WHO and WB approaches are currently converging, although there remain differences in their respective focuses. The main merit of the WHO approach is its focus on performance and the systems approach towards health (care). The merit of the WB view is the integrated approach to health, education and poverty. It is argued that CEEC and NIS need to anticipate an ageing population and growing numbers of chronically ill. This calls for integrated health care systems and more integrated funding and payment systems. CONCLUSION: The recommendations provided in the WHR and the WDR with regard to integrated care and integrated financing remain rather abstract. Advisors of CEEC and NIS on health care reform and Western assistance projects should focus more on future needs, in order to avoid building health systems that consistently lag behind the needs of their populations.     

Demands out of context: Tanzanian women combining exclusive breastfeeding with employment

This research, conducted in Tanzania, involved 6 women and their experiences as they combined exclusive breastfeeding with work outside their home. Additional data were collected at a conference in Tanzania and from women in North America. We found that while public health officials did a spectacular job of convincing the women of the advantages of exclusive breastfeeding in terms of their babies' health and their own, they then left the women to their own devises when it came to solving the practical problems of breastfeeding at the same time as holding down a full-time job. We found that the women had to deal with conditions such as no on-site child care, lack of expressing or breastfeeding rooms, and short maternity leave at most workplaces. In addition, the women suffered the embarrassment of dribbling breasts while working. It seems clear that while cultural norms persist, these women are victims who are taught the imperative of breastfeeding without being given societal and governmental support. Therefore, the obvious next step for health professionals is to work for sociopolitical action that will provide a context where breastfeeding can take its natural place in the growth and development of infants. While structural functionalists might insist that structures in place position breastfeeding as having no normal function in the workplace, the pressure of the World Health Organization, by the shear weight of its international influence, may force a change in structure of the workplace.     

Lactational amenorrhea as a method of family planning in Egypt

Because of the potential importance of the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) as a family-planning option in Egypt, we analyzed data from the 1995 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) to study breastfeeding practices, use of contraception, reproductive history and sociodemographic factors for 5504 mothers with children under 3 years. According to the EDHS data, about 80% of Egyptian women breastfed for at least 6 months, and 40% breastfed for 15-18 months. Over half of breastfeeding mothers used no additional contraception. Thirty-six percent of mothers breastfeeding children younger than 6 months who reported using no additional contraception were exclusively breastfeeding and amenorrheic, but only 4% reported relying on breastfeeding for family planning. We also held eight focus group discussions with breastfeeding mothers from urban and rural Upper and Lower Egypt on their use of contraceptive methods, breastfeeding, lactational amenorrhea and LAM. Participants showed strong recognition of the contraceptive effects of breastfeeding but differed widely in their understanding of lactational infecundability and knowledge of LAM as a method. These results suggest that LAM would be widely acceptable to Egyptian women, but that an educational program about the method is needed.     

Hybrid Approach to Estimation of Underreporting of Tuberculosis Case Notification in High-Burden Settings With Weak Surveillance Infrastructure: Design and Implementation of an Inventory Study

BackgroundThe greatest risk of infectious disease undernotification occurs in settings with limited capacity to detect it reliably. World Health Organization guidance on the measurement of misreporting is paradoxical, requiring robust, independent systems to assess surveillance rigor. Methods are needed to estimate undernotification in settings with incomplete, flawed, or weak surveillance systems. This study attempted to design a tuberculosis (TB) inventory study that balanced rigor with feasibility for high-need settings.ObjectiveThis study aims to design a hybrid TB inventory study for contexts without World Health Organization preconditions. We estimated the proportion of TB cases that were not reported to the Ministry of Health in 2015. The study sought to describe TB surveillance coverage and quality at different levels of TB care provision. Finally, we aimed to identify structural-, facility-, and provider-level barriers to notification and reasons for underreporting, nonreporting, and overreporting.MethodsRetrospective partial digitalization of paper-based surveillance and facility records preceded deterministic and probabilistic record linkage; a hybrid of health facilities and laboratory census with a stratified sampling of HFs with no capacity to notify leveraged a priori knowledge. Distinct extrapolation methods were applied to the sampled health facilities to estimate bacteriologically confirmed versus clinical TB. In-depth interviews and focus groups were used to identify causal factors responsible for undernotification and test the acceptability of remedies.ResultsThe hybrid approach proved viable and instructive. High-specificity verification of paper-based records in the field was efficient and had minimal errors. Limiting extrapolation to clinical cases improved precision. Probabilistic record linkage is computationally intensive, and the choice of software influences estimates. Record absence, decay, and overestimation of the private sector TB treatment behavior threaten validity, meriting mitigation. Data management demands were underestimated. Treatment success was modest in all sectors (R=37.9%–72.0%) and did not align with treatment success reported by the state (6665/8770, 75.99%). One-fifth of TB providers (36/178, 20%) were doubtful that the low volume of patients with TB treated in their facility merited mastery of the extensive TB notification forms and procedures.ConclusionsSubnational inventory studies can be rigorous, relevant, and efficient in countries that need them even in the absence of World Health Organization preconditions, if precautions are taken. The use of triangulation techniques, with minimal recourse to sampling and extrapolation, and the privileging of practical information needs of local decision makers yield reasonable misreporting estimates and viable policy recommendations.